Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Bass traps and room treatments???

Before everyone jumps all over me for asking this question for the third time on here I thought I would fill everyone in with more detail about my room and see if anyone thinks I need these. Room is 24x10.5x7.5. My theater is in the basement. The walls on three sides are concrete with studing that has rg13 insulation in them with the insulation turned toward the inside to absorb sound. The other wall is just a studed wall in the middle of the room that separates the two rooms. It also has the owenscorning in it as well. The ceiling has the same owens corning in it with 3/8 drywall that has mass loaded rubber material for sound proofing. Then it has channeling with the sound isolation clips and another layer of drywall ontop of that. I have thick carpet with a thick pad underneath. All couches are fabric. and I have a computer desk in the back of the room. I do notice a ringing sound when I clap. So my question is: With this room will the addition of bass traps allow for me to notice a difference. Will it flatten out my bass response. I never have to turn up my gain hardly at all so I wonder if it is because of resonance from my sub or if it is my room size being so small. I have to say I have really enjoyed getting into this hobby, but since I am not an engineer I have a long way to go before I fully understand everything. Oh I forgot that my listening position is about 15 feet away from my mains and sub. From my discription can anyone say if I have problems that need to be fixed with these treatments and traps or not. Thanks for you patients with a rookie.

I am sure Randy will chime in here sooner or later.

Ethan Winer has a series of videos for the average joe to look at and understand what bass trapping does and what a RFZ (reflection free zone) does for a theatre room/listening room.

Here is the link to his videos.

It sounds like you are confusing insulation and STC (sound transmission class) with acoustics. Anything behind the drywall will only effect sound transmission to other areas of the house. It will not effect your in-room acoustics in any way. Your thick pad and carpet help alot with your acoustics though.

In short, there should be a bass trap in every corner of the room. This will effect your bass listening in a major way. It will be more clear and pricise and less muddy. Ethan also recommends every 90 degree angle have a trap straddling it (including the ceiling).

If WAF lets just 4 traps in each corner of your room you should notice a siginificant difference.

-Robb.

no I understand the differences. What I was getting at is does this stuff have reflective properties that would transmit sound back into the room as well as keep it from going to my upstairs room. I know that different frequencies have different wavelengths that can travel through different materials and will be reflected back or pass through. I was more or less wondering if that material acted like any type of bass trap for the longer wavelengths or if my concrete wall would cause me to have more resonance than normal even though they are covered with the insulation. Obviously I don't understand the physics of waves well enough at this point to know exactly what materials cause reflections at what frequency or do you only get reflections from the first surface the waves come into contact with. With my limited knowledge (very limited) I would think you could have multiple reflections based on the materials and wavelengths??? Someone with a degree in this please let me know how mixed up I am. That was why I put the materials into my question. I have watched the videos from realtraps and they look great for selling and explaining what they do, but there is no way to hear the difference in performance for me. With the above info can anyone tell me if my room is neutral enough or if these would help me out so that I can honestly hear the difference. By the way, does anyone know of any classes that people can take to learn about acoustics and home theater applications. I can't tell you how much I am enjoying this. I am the type of individual that has to know how something works. I have to be able to do it myself or it just drives me insane. Obviously my axiom speakers have given me tons of enjoyment or I would not be wanting to learn so much about this. Anyway, thanks to everyone for all the comments I get.

WOW after reading my own post this new diet I am on right now must be clouding my ability to comprehend. Hutzal, thank you for your reply. I also must have missed you second part about how things would sound with the bass traps in each corner. I hope I didn't come across negative. I had no intentions of that. Am I completely OFF with my thoughts about the different wavelengths? So would the gik traps do the job that I mentioned on a previous post and what about the velodyne sms1. Has anyone used this?

Ok, thanks. I have been a little confussed about that. I knew that waves created by earthquakes traveled through materials at different speeds depending on the composition of the materials it was moving through it. I just figured sound would have similar properties. OH duh that would be transmition through a substance. UGHH!!! Thanks I think I might try to build these. It looks like it will be fun to do so. Thanks for all the help everyone.